Archive for August, 2008

Here’s a group of Loyal Readers hanging around with Brigham Young. He’s the bronze-colored guy in the back. Picture taken during yesterday’s drop-off session. Part of my famous Statue series.

Extreme Short Shrift tonight. It’s late already.

Visited Loyal Reader Number One once more. We dropped off his suit and visited for a little while. He’s having a great time, has met lots of people, and is already incredibly busy. Have a great semester, LRN1! We’ll miss you. We miss you already.

Also visited Loyal Reader Number Four’s aunt and her husband (which I guess makes him her uncle, or at least step-uncle, but since her original uncle, who passed away unexpectedly a while ago, wasn’t a blood relative either, the current uncle is just as much an uncle as the late uncle. Or something like that.) and had a great time. He’s very friendly, witty, and a genuinely nice man. She’s also a family favorite.

Otherwise, slept, ate, and relaxed. Appropriate for vacation. Worked on our hosts’ desktop computer a little more. There’s still more of that to finish up tomorrow, along with a good amount of car maintenance I hope to accomplish. We’ll see. There’s also a visit and lunch with LRN4’s dad and stepmom and LRN4’s dinner out with friends from Virginia, which I may have mentioned I’m not invited to. Sheesh.

Here’s a postcard-type view of part of the BYU campus. That greenhouse-looking structure on the left is part of the library. Taken today while we were dropping Loyal Reader Number One off at school.

That’s right, LRN1 is now an official college student. We got him into the dorm at 9:00 or 10:00 or so, did a little walking around campus, had lunch together, and then left. He had a bunch of orientation stuff this afternoon and evening. We’re hoping he’s having a great time. Classes don’t start until next Tuesday, so he has plenty of time to get set up and familiar with the place.

Otherwise, very little happened today. I’ve been working on degunking a couple of our hosts’ computers and enjoying that. The laptop’s now done – it’s working great. I’m working on the desktop now. It’s in much better shape to start – it will boot, for example – but there’s a bunch of HP-installed garbageware and some things they no longer need, so there’s still work to do. The biggest challenge will be to get McAfee off of there. I’m going to replace it with AVG, which has a much smaller footprint.

More visiting coming up the next couple of days, and then we’re off for home. Have to go down to Provo again – LRN1’s suit got left in the closet, and he’ll definitely be needing it. We’ll be happy to visit with him one more time before we go.

Here’s the view from another of our Clark’s Fork geocache locations. This was on an old depression-era highway bridge. The bridge has been replaced by a bigger, better one, which is about three feet away. The old one is still cool-looking and the view of the river underneath is spectacular. As you can see. Part of my Camping series.

Nice day. I worked on our hostess’s laptop computer this morning – it wouldn’t boot and hadn’t ever been connected to their home network. I reinstalled the operating system from its secret partition and have been working on getting it set up ever since. It’s been trying to download Service Pack 2 for the past hour or more. I have no idea how much more time it’ll need. There are probably numerous updates to install after that, too. Good thing we’re here all week.

I also ran the PC Decrapifier on it. It worked pretty well at getting rid of the pre-installed junk. Highly recommended.

Anyway. I was finally persuaded to put the computer aside for a little while and go do a little siteseeing. We went to the Church Museum of History, Temple Square, and the Conference Center. There was a poorly-attended organ concert in the Conference Center – there were probably about twenty people there. The church’s organists do two performances daily, and have for many years. They’re now doing one in the Tabernacle and one in the Conference Center, which is the one we attended. Highly recommended. We stopped inside the Tabernacle for the first time since its recent renovation. It looks about the same as before, but better. The General Authority seats and podium are missing and have been replaced by a stage, but I assume they’re portable and can be brought back in when needed.

The museum was very nice, as always. It was lightly attended too. I guess the prime summer tourist season is over at this point. Anyway, we had seen most of the exhibits before, but I particularly enjoyed the small American Indian collection, the exhibits of Tabernacle artifacts, the collection of Temple Square photographs, and the Presidents of the Church exhibits. They had an exact copy of the podium in the Conference Center, made from President Hinckley’s walnut tree like the original.

And I forgot my camera, so there’s no new Great Art. Don’t panic, Loyal Readers. I’ll get some tomorrow. And the day after. But I missed some wonderful opportunities. I did shoot a couple of pictures on the exclusive, low-resolution RAZR-cam. They’ll have to wait until we get home, though – I don’t have the right cable for it here and this computer doesn’t speak Bluetooth.

We have a new Loyal Reader! A casual look over there on the right will reveal that Austin has signed on to the Morrowlifestyle. Welcome, Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Seven! As soon as I take his picture, he’ll have his own Very Special Day.

Here’s some good news for egg lovers – we can eat them every day without feeling guilty! Happy days are here again!

Loyal Reader Number One checks in to college tomorrow. Exciting day for him! I’m really going to miss having him at home, but we’re all really excited for his new adventure. And things aren’t like they were when I first went away to college. Email is immediate and long distance phone calls are free. Big difference right there.

Later in the week, we’re hoping to hit a Church Distribution Center and visit the This Is The Place monument. We also have some old friends from Virginia to visit. Well, at least Loyal Reader Number Four does. I don’t think I’m invited to the party. Harumph.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number One at Clark’s Fork last week. Special low-res picture courtesy of the exclusive RAZR-cam. Part of my Camping series.

Greetings from Draper, Utah! We got here this afternoon after a smooth, quick trip. The truck ran perfectly, the weather was great with the possible exception of a fairly stiff breeze, and we enjoyed being together.

The Utah branch of the family is doing well. We’ve been enjoying chatting all evening. They should really be in bed by now, but that’s not my problem, is it?

Had a great campout this weekend. As discussed earlier, we went to Clark’s Fork again. What a beautiful place! It’s in the Sierra Nevada just a little more than two hours away from home, up above 7,000 feet, and north of Yosemite. There’s a pretty little river that runs through it. And lots of spectacular mountains. Wow.

Here’s one more look at that bizarre statue in downtown Sacramento. I have no idea how much they paid for this, but they didn’t get their money’s worth. Poorly-lit photo courtesy of the exclusive RAZR-cam. And part of my famous Statue series, of course.

The pickup‘s here! Well, not exactly here. Technically, it’s in Sunnyvale right now. It’s waiting for me to get home from my various vacations. I do have the key and the owner’s manual here, though. Already read the manual. Of course.

Vacation starts tomorrow. No posts Thursday or Friday – they haven’t extended the Intertubes into the woods yet, as far as I know. Posting will probably be limited next week, although I expect our non-Loyal-Reader relatives in Utah will have some kind of network to which we can connect. If so, there will be posts. If not, you’re on your own, Loyal Readers. Stay tuned.

And there’s not much more to say tonight. Had a nice day. Commuted, worked, ate, participated in a panel discussion, ate, worked, commuted, ate, read the owner’s manual, ate, and watched a little TV. The usual.